I never thought I'd ever combine these two together. When I was a kid, I was really into dinosaurs and other prehistoric life. Remember, this was in the early eighties and there was absolutely to dinosaur revival. I always thought I was going to be a palaeontologist, but chemistry and biology weren't my favourite subjects in school. Besides dinosaurs, other prehistoric life has also captured my interest. Life in the ancient oceans and the prehistoric mammals, that lived after the dinosaurs, are just as interesting.
In this blog I've tried to collect the visual (and sometimes other) links between the 'SW'-movies and prehistoric fauna. I have tried to stay away from concept art as much as possible.
A NEW HOPE
# Casts of Apatosaurus bones were used as the bones for the Krayt Dragon that lies in the desert on Tatooine when Threepio passes.
# The word Ronto hails from Brontosaurus (the former name of Apatosaurus)
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
# The Bog-Wings of Dagobah look a lot like certain shot headed species of Pterosaurs like Anurognathus.
RETURN OF THE JEDI
# The Chevin Ephant Mon resembles the prehistoric elephant Platybelodon.
THE PHANTOM MENACE
# The Opee Sea Killer doesn't look exactly like a Dunkleosteus, a gigantic fish from the Devonian era, but his armoured head and jaws does remind me of the fish. In fact, the entire sea life of Naboo in the Caves of Eleuabad is reminiscent of the dangerous ancient oceans that contained enormous predators such as Liopleurodon, Kronosaurus, Elasmosaurus, gigantic sharks (Megalodon) and huge crocodiles.
# The Falumpaset from Naboo looks a bit like a hairless Moropus and Ancylotherium, two mammals that lived during the Miocene era.
# The Ikopi doesn't have the thin neck of Syndyoceras or Synthetoceras (Miocene), but both wear strange antlers at the head.
# The Pikobis looks like small therapod dinosaurs such as Compsognathus or Coelophysis, but only with a very sharp birdlike beak. These dinosaurs could have been feathered for they were the ancestors of the birds.
# The Kaadu also resembled therapod dinosaurs, the Ornithomimidae, consisting of bird like species like Gallimimus and Ornithomimus. Only the Kaadu had no pair of front paws.
# The Gorg shares a clear resemblance to the Amphibian creature calledDiplocaulusthat lived in the Carboniferous and the Permian eras.
# The species of the Nosaurian are perhaps a fine example what might have happened if the dinosaurs had continued to live. Not only is their name reminding us of their heritage, their horned head looks a lot like an evolved ceratopsian such as Styracosaurus or Centrosaurus.
Note: When 'TPM' was released, it seemed that the final Naboo celebration looked a lot like a scene from the Dinotopia series. George Lucas himself gave a call to the makers of Dinotopia to tell them about his concern about this sequence.
http://www.dinotopia.com/statement.html
ATTACK OF THE CLONES
# The Kouhuns remind us of the gigantic insects, myriapods and arachnids from thecarboniferous era.
# The Reek may look like a rhinoceros or a triceratops, it's basic idea was actually aPlacerias from the Triassic era.
# The head of the Vurk species resembles the head of the Hadrosaurian Parasaurolophus.
REVENGE OF THE SITH
# The large Dactillion from Utapau looks like enormous pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlusor Ornithocheirus.
# The Can-cell is a gigantic dragonfly from Kashyyyk but during the carboniferous period, there live a dragonfly with a wingspan of 75 cm called Meganeura.
BATTLE FOR ENDOR
# I wanted to include this creature from the spin-offs as well.The Boar-Wolf from Caravan of Courage reminds me of the Entelodonts, giant omnivorous pig like beasts such asDinohyus.
In the Droid animated species you will also find creatures such as the Miridon and the Shamunaar that really resemble prehistoric creatures.
If you know more species or creatures from the 'SW' movies or spin-offs that resemble prehistoric creatures, please let me know.
